


Lessons to Teach and Be Taught

by SoEmmazing



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Character Development, Cute, EREN'S HIDDEN LIFE THO YALL, Fluff, Humor, Love, M/M, School, Slice of Life, Teacher x Student, Top Levi, Uke Eren, aot - Freeform, semi levi, snk, student, teacher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-04-06 13:25:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14057907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoEmmazing/pseuds/SoEmmazing
Summary: Levi Ackerman is the Senior class' AP Human Geography teacher. He just wants them to pass so he can get rid of their terrible jokes and disruptive behavior, and maybe get a high pass rate so he can get a nice pay raise, but one pupil, Eren Jaeger, stands out to him with his cheeky outward demeanor, but darker inner secrets.





	1. Teacher, Introduced.

**Author's Note:**

> I am so excited, y'all don't even know what I have in store for you (눈_눈)

                                                                  

 “Okay class, welcome to  A.P. Human Geography”

“AP HUG!” a shaved-headed imbecile shouted from the back of the classroom, snickering and high fiving his fellow delinquents who thought that tasteless aside was actually _somehow_ amusing. I give him the death glare

“Way to start off on my ‘ _I’m going to make your senior year hell’_ list” _dumbass…_ I cleared my throat. “Anyway, my name is Mr. Ackerman and I will _attempt_ to guide your puny brains to some knowledge about the world outside of your phones and social media memes—“

“Oh, hoow booooriingg” a horse-faced kid with an extremely agitating fuckboi bougie drawl complained.

My eyebrow twitches. They’re already making me want to resign. “Well, if you want to graduate and pass your AP exam so you can save money in college, assuming you’ll make it, I suggest you all will work with me on your willpower and motivation to succeed in this course.” I raise my brow condescendingly.

“Hmph” Horse-face rolls his eyes.

“ _Daaammmnn_ Jean. You just got roasted by a midget.”

I’m going to snap everyone’s legs, then we’ll see who the midget is.  
“This _midget_ is about to kick your ass to the principal’s office.” …if not your death. “Anyway, enough distractions. We have _real_ work to do.” I reach for my briefcase and open it on top of my desk. “If you don’t want to learn, then do us both a favor and go transfer to, or fail out of, another school. Don’t waste my precious time.” I shuffle and begin counting the handouts for today’s lecture.

“Or, we can switch to Reiner’s class. He’s chill.” The bald headed brat smirks as he places his hand, thumb and index finger in a ‘V’ shape on his chin.

I begin handing out the papers. “Sure, he is _chill_ , but I’m sure you’ve hear out of his 40 percent pass rate.” I slam the paper on baldy’s desk, making him flinch and lose a bit of his cockiness. “I’m sure you’re aware that when you have to repeat a course, you take it with the next available teacher guiding it…and him and I are the only instructors.” I saunter back to my desk and slam my hands on the desk, leaning forward and sternly eyeing the class.. “and I do _not_ want to see any of you for a second year.”

“Yikes, Connie, he has a point” a loud girl with glasses bigger than her face announces.

“Hmph,” Connie pouts. “Who says I planned on failing anyway?” He flips through the handouts, pretending to scan the information on them.

“Your bad attitude.” I remark, turning on the overhead projector.

A girl in a red scarf smiles and chuckles.

“SHUT IT MIKASA.”  Connie shouts, flustered.

“HEY” Jean stands up and points dramatically at Connie, as if challenging him. “DON’T SPEAK ILL TO MY WIFE.

“Not your wife.” Mikasa responds in a deadpan tone.

“Oops, I meant future wife.” Jean corrects himself. Mikasa responds with a piercing death glare, _almost_ as good as mine if I may add, and Jean sits himself down like an obedient little puppy. I must befriend this student and convince her to keep Horse fac—I mean Jean, constantly mute.

“Wow Mikasa, if looks could kill.”  A blonde, coconut-cut boy next to Mikasa smiles.

“I’m still working on it, Armin.” She responds in the same monotone. I wonder if that’s her normal tone.

“Alright, today we will be covering the demographic transition model.” The projector begins focusing on the powerpoint projecting from my laptop. “The AP usually asked 3 to 5 multiple choice questions on this, and it is usually a component of the Short Response or Long Response essays,  
_okay, no asinine remarks yet. Good. Obey me, peasants.  
_ “Ah, before I forget, let me do roll so I can put a name to the delinquent I want to send to detention”

I begin calling out names and receiving “Here’s” and “Present!’s”, or just grunts from the delinquents who chose to start off with a bad rep this fine August day.  
“Arlert, Ackerman” _hmm, interesting._ “Bott, Brauss,  Hoover, Fritz, Kirstein, Leonhart, Ral, Reiss, Springer, Zoe…” Is that everyone?

“Oi, Eren, did he not call your name?” Coconut head…ah, _A-armin?_ _Asked_ the brunette next to him, who was resting his head on his chin and doodling on the handout.

“You,” I pointed toward him. “What’s your name, are you registered for this course?

He stopped doodling and lifted his eyes, unamused, to meet mine. “Supposed to be.”  
Tch, more goddamn attitude.

“What’s your name, kid?” I asked him. I sensed I hit a nerve because I thought I saw him flinch a little.  
_Yeah that’s right, I can play tough too, twerp._

“Jaeger” he responded.

“Jaeger…” I responded as I began scanning the list.

“With a J, should come after K—Kirstein, just in case you forgot your alphabet, teach.”

“OHHH SHIIIT LMAOOO” Connie shouted. The others around him started laughing and high-fiving.”

 _Oh hell no.  
_ I smirk. “Much thanks for the kind reminder. I must do you the same courtesy by reminding you that you are to stay after class today so that I can personally walk you over to Principal Pixis’ office for detention.

“What?!” Eren shot up on his desk. _Now I have your attention, you cheeky brat._ “What for?! So many others offended and gave you a tough time and you’re not sending them to detention!”

 _Ahh, not so confident now, are we?_  
“Perhaps, but first of all, you were the only one who directly insulted me. Secondly, you created a large disturbance in class after it took us half an hour to settle in anyway. And Thirdly, you can consider all the previous instances as warnings against yourself as well to not further perpetuate distracting behavior among your classmates.”  
_Three strikes, you’re out. Jaeger._

Eren sits down, shaking with anger, and I gladly continue to give our discourse on the lesson, with whatever time remains. Luckily, everyone chose to remain quiet and non-disturbing knowing that I will not tolerate any more shit.

 

“Alright class, read chapter 2 on your own in order to review the bolded vocab. Those are easy exam and AP questions no one should miss.” I turn off the overhead as the bell rings. “Also review the handouts, if you must, for our quiz tomorrow..—“

“WHAT?!” The class stops moving and shouts in unison.

I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, if you all actually read the syllabus before class like you’re expected, you would know that we have a quiz the following class every time we finish a unit; since this one was self-explanatory, it was fairly quick and we can have the quiz tomorrow. Remember, you’re fourth period anyway, so you have basically all day to review as well rather than goofing off doodling in your other courses.

Various chatters flood the room as anxious teens exit the classroom  
“Oh my god, homework the first day”  
“Quiz the next class”  
“So much work for senior year!”  
“I’m gonna eat my cereal tomorrow morning with my teen-depressed tears”

“This is A.P, people!” I shout over their complaints.

As the delinquents flood out, one specific little brunette twerpette sticks out.  
“Jaeger…” I call out. He pauses, halfway through the doorway and glances at me, still with that stoic _idgaf_ expression. _Irritating._ “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Hmm.” He places his index finger on his chin and tilts his head and eyes up, as if thinking. “I don’t really recall after my restful sleep during your lecture.” He looks straight at me, slightly smirking. “Care to remind me?”

 _TCH. WHY I OUGHTA--  
_ I slam my papers down and begin to walk toward him. “Perfect, you can tell the same to Principal Pixis.

“Hmm, nah, I’d rather not.” Eren turns and continues walking out the door. “Thanks for the offer though, teach!”

“Hey, I’m not done with you, brat!” I run to the door and stop myself outside the door. The little brat sprinted down the halls into the crowd of other rude, misguided teens.

 _What the actual fuck, Jaeger?_  
   



	2. A Student, His Secret.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, so the class shenanigans continue with the widely (un)anticipated quiz! Mostly, things go as usual...except near the end. Eren's hiding a secret about the quiz, or is it about something else? Either way, it's not something Levi was expecting to find out, and he is very reluctant to accept what he just saw...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kind feedback, everyone! You truly inspire me to keep writing! :) <3

“Alright imbeciles, hurry up and take your seats so that you may begin your quizzes” I announce whilst shuffling through the quiz stack and partitioning them into enough for each desk column.

“Sooo, if we don’t take our seats, then we can’t take the quizzes..?” Connie smirked and turned about-face to walk back out of the door.

“Well, actually, no matter what, you have until 1:45 to finish this assessment regardless, so if you want to be the only zero, be my guest.” I finish passing the quiz stacks to the first person in each row, who pass them back to the end of the rows. “Then I can truly say you’re an idiot and a failure” I smirk back at him.

“Tch! I’ll show you!” Connie sprints back to his seat, grabs a pencil out of his messy bag, and begins gritting his teeth. “I’LL BE THE ONLY ONE TO GET A HUNDRED, HAHAHA” He maniacally laughs while the rest of class stares, probably annoyed as I am, at him. Suddenly, he loses his mojo and freezes.  
“U-um. Wait. What’s today’s date?”

The whole class groans.  
“Connie shut up” Jean whinnies.

“Agh! Jean, my boy! How could you?”

“Birds of a feather may fly together, but bro you can fail on your own. I’m graduating.”

“QUIET.” I yell, rubbing an oncoming migraine. I literally imagined  even elementary school children to be better behaved than these morons.

As time went on, about 8 minutes left, thanks to this unnecessary commotion, for this 10 question multiple choice quiz, I observed to see which students could be struggling. Armin seemed nervous, but focused; I don’t think he’ll be too much trouble this year. Mikasa, unreadable as always, seems to be very unthrilled to fill this out; but then again, it’s not like I can tell her expression from any other given day. Jean…well, he is having an epileptic fit between smirking then angrily cursing under his breath and madly erasing his choice; he seems to be the one who will change their answer to every answer choice and still be undecided. Connie…well, let’s just say I can’t wait to see his _perfect A_ at the end of the time.

 _Eren._ Looks peacefully calm and as unamused as Mikasa. He puts his pencil down. First one done. Perhaps feeling my gaze, he shifts his attention to stare directly at me. Then, like the first day of class, he rested is chin on his hand and looed boredly outside the window.  
_Oi, brat. You better get a 100 with that attitude.  
_ I sigh and continue filling out the roll while everyone is sitting quietly. Luckily no one had the audacity to skip class, especially on quiz day.

“Alright. Writing utensils down, everyone.” I call out. Everyone obeys…except Connie who is still scribbling. “Oi” I begin to walk over to him. “I don’t mind your little games here and there,” _actually, yeah the hell I do,_ “but this can seriously get you an integrity referral.”

“WAAAIIIIIT. I’M ALMOST DONE I NEED MY 100.”

“You’re about to get a zero…again”

The class watches in amusement.

“ _WAIT SERIOUSLY I’M ALMOST DONE”_

I snatch his sheet up. “Are you serious?” I glare at him. “You wouldn’t get done if I gave you another half hour at this rate”. I sigh and continue to collect the others’ sheets. “Pass them to the first person in your row.”

“Aw come on, I only had like 2 more left.” Connie cries.

“Five. You had FIVE left. Out of the 10 question quiz.” I sigh and collect the sheets from the front of each row.

“Okay maybe not a hundred this go-round, but at least I got a solid fifty!” Connie gives a radiating cheeky grin.

“Actually, the first question was today’s date.” I place the papers on my desk and turn to face the dry erase board and write up today’s date _August 26 th. _“You put yesterday’s date.”

“OH COME ON.” Connie sobs on his desk. “It’s yesterday somewhere!”

“Yeah, maybe in that somewhat brain of yours. Did you even bother waking up this morning?”

[Connie’s ugly sobbing intensifies]

“Anyway, next we will be building off the demographic transition model to talk about values of population growth, such as: linear, exponential, negative, and zero population growth (ZPG).” I shuffle a new set of handouts on my desk. “The AP essays have been infamous for asking the question explaining your knowledge of global population trends and reproductive health and control/contraceptive measures.”

Jean and Connie and Berthold snicker. Sasha joins in.

I sigh. “Oh c’mon, you expect me to believe all of you have clean, virgin minds and cannot handle this material?”

“EREN’S A VIRGIN. HA.” Jean laughs.  Many of the girls’, even Mikasa’s. face blush pink. Wow, this is probably the first sense of expression I’ll ever get from Mikasa.

Eren is pink up to his ears. “Tch, and you’re not? Horse face!”

“Wow Eren, you’re so confident in your virginity that you didn’t even try to deny it first of all” Sasha snickers in a deep, malevolent tone.

“S-sasha!” Eren flips out.

“Hehehe. Don’t worry Eren. Soon, you’ll find a cute little potato to make little French fries with.”

“UM”

“O-oh, not that they have to be French, of course. There are also Russet, and Idaho, and—“

“AAHH STOOPP.” Eren, poor thing red as a beet, shoves his face into crossed arms on his desk.

I stifle a little laugh. “Ah, well, intruding on peoples’ personal lives is kind of against the school rules here, so I’ll have to end this little fun here.” I clear my throat, still fighting to hold back a grin. “Alright, please follow this outline to aid you in taking notes from chapter 3. I will have you all read to yourselves and test your own reliance of your note-taking and comprehension skills for the next quiz.

“I’ll ace the next one, teach!” Connie smirks.

“Hmm, yes, sure. Please do make sure you come in knowing what day it is.” I reply

“That’s such a dumb question though. Why do you ask that; ya think we’re actually that dumb or..?”

 _Says the one who couldn’t answer it._ “My purpose is for you to see and observe just how much of the regular world you pay attention to.” I pass out the handouts the same way as I did the quizzes. “Imagine being so lost in yourselves or your technology, that you don’t even know what day it is.

“Wow!” Historia Reiss squeals. The first time I ever hear anything out of her, and her squeal was so high that a few more decibels and it could’ve probably busted my eardrum. “That’s so clever!” She clasps her hands in front of her, glowing.

The girl sitting closely next to her, _Ymir_ , flinches and seems personally attacked at Reiss’ idolization. “K-krista…” Ymir jabs her side. _Hmm, does Historia prefer Krista…?_ I write that down next to her name on the roll.  
“Haha, sorry.” Krista, still smiling, averts her attention to opening her textbook.

“Thanks. I expected it to be an easy freebie for everyone on their first main assignment…” I glare over at Connie. “But I guess there’s always a next time too…” I trail off.

Connie whimper-cries as he opens his textbook.

“Anyway, I’d also like to use this time to grade your assignments so that you may know how you did in order to adjust your studying methods for tomorrow’s quiz.” I sit down, _finally,_ and begin assessing the future fliers from the floppers in my class.

45 minutes later, including entering the grades into the online gradebook and writing comments on each quiz, I call everyone’s attention to announce the averages of grades.  
“Alright. _Most_ of you did quite well. We also had some A’s.”

“Did you curve my grade to an A?”

“You wrote down that Mexico was its own continent.”

“I-it’s not?”

“I wish seppuku was still legal”

“Do you mean Sudoku?”

I glare at him for what felt like 5 minutes.

“Anyway, Congratulations Mikasa, Kirsta, Ymir, Marco, Jean”

“Ahuhuhuh” Jean gives his aristocratic horse laugh.

“Next time guessing won’t make you so lucky, Jean. Spare your eraser some.”

“Ahuhcrycry” He corrects himself.

“Also, can’t believe I’m saying this, but congratulations to Eren, who got a perfect score.” I raise an eyebrow. “Who knew you were capable of such things?”

“Hmph”, Eren rolls his eyes and does that annoyingly dramatic window stare again. _Look here ya lil shit, I gave you a compliment._

The class gives a clap then friends turn to each other to discuss answers.

“Hey, Eren, why are you wearing your winter uniform today by the way? It’s still a little hot for long sleeves, don’t you think?” Armin asks, tugging at Eren’s loose long sleeves, laughing.

Eren grabs back his sleeve, slightly annoyed. “It’s sorta chilly in the classrooms lately.” He replies, avoiding eye contact.

“VEEERRYY SUSPICIOUS JAEEGEERR.” Jean announces. “What if you only wore long sleeves today because you have some nice TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE to help you get a hundred on your first quiz, HMMM?”

The class’ chatter dies down and everyone stares at Eren and Jean.

Mikasa abruptly stands up. “Eren always studies.”

“You never know.” Jean proudly crosses his arms and smirks. “If he has nothing to hide, then it should be easy to just prove it!” Jean walks over and tugs at Eren’s sleeve, attempting to pull it up.

“Hey! You can’t just touch me horse face!” Eren pulls back defensively. “It’s not like I would even know what to expect from the first quiz. Get a grip on your jealousy!”

The bell rings.

Most of class scrambles to leave.

As Eren picks up his bag to leave, I grab him by the elbow and pull him up front to my desk. Mikasa, Armin and Connie stay back to watch.  
“This does not concern any of you.” I narrow my eyes. They leave.

“Pull up your sleeve.”

“No way” Eren steps backward and I grab him fiercely by his wrist.

“Jaeger, I am giving you a choice.”

“And I choose no” he attempts to break from my grasp but inevitably fails. Eren looks up at me with frightened eyes. I’ve never seen anyone so terrified.

“J-just please believe me and leave it at that Mr. Ackerman!” he attempts again to loosen from my grip.

I pull up his sleeve.

“Jaeger…what is this?” my eyes gape into his, which are now slowly swelling up with tears.

“Please don’t say anything..” he pulls his arm from my grip and slides his sleeve back down, face down at the ground, sniffling.

“Call home, now.”

“NO WAY!” He shouts.

“I’m not giving you a choice!” I yell as I reach for the phone.

“It’s against school rules to intrude on a student’s privacy!” Eren grabs at my hand to pull the phone away; he’s basically sobbing now.

“It's not when they’re hurting and endangering themselves.”


	3. A Student, visited.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because Eren refuses to cooperate, Levi resorts to visiting Eren's house to meet his family and address the issue at hand. Unbeknowest, a graver secret of darkness and fractures await behind the closed doors of Eren's bright, appreaingly-wholesome home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Omg!! Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind comments, kudos and bookmarks! It really means a lot and I have great big plans for this story, so I hope you will stay along for the journey and support me

“ _We are sorry, the number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable, please hang up and try your call again later._ ”

“That is the third time, Jaeger. Are you trying to tell me no one is waiting at home for you?” I eye him.

“Adults work, _you should know that_.” He sassily eyed back.

“Well, you’re always in such a rush to get back home that I seriously doubt that’s the issue here..”

“You don’t even know me.”

“Perhaps not entirely, but I do know your tricks. I bet you’re dialing a random number or one of your friends’ numbers.” _Tch._ “You know they will be just as in trouble if they have any part of this so you’d better—“

“No one knows and I’ve been trying to keep it that way!” He crosses his arms. “With no help from you, by the way.”

I grab his chin and force his face up to look directly at mine. I can see my image reflecting in his marine, tear-dried eyes. “Well, but why do it? You are at a great school, getting college credit so you can have an easier life, you have friends, you’re cocky enough to constantly wear a bad attitude—“

“Shut up!” He clenched my arm, trying to pull himself free.

“Do you want more attention, huh?!” I retort by clenching his chin harder. “What’s wrong, don’t you enjoy pain? Enjoy abusing your body so carelessly even when other people in the world would amputate a limb to be where you are?”

“You don’t know anything outside of me at school, just shut the hell up!” he yells.

 _“Where do you live.”_ I glare at him.

“This is crossing boundaries. You don’t need to have contact with me outside of school.” Eren slaps my arm away and crosses his arms around his body. “Or after designated school hours, for that matter!”

I start dialing the phone. Eren grabs my hand and slams the school phone down to end my dialing.  
“Hey, are you listening to me?! Who are you dia--?”

“Principal Pixis. If you don’t want to cooperate with me, then we can let all the school officials get involved too.” I shove his hand away and reach for the phone again. Eren grabs me by the waist and pulls me back.

“God damn it why do you even care! All you do is harass students anyway. This should make you happy!”

I shove him away and glare at him. “My remarks are in good humor and keep you all attentive and respecting me. Self harm and mental health is not a joke. Do you have **_any_** idea how many adolescents alone lose their lives because they aren’t getting the support they need?” I furiously cross my arms. “Also, me now knowing and not speaking out is technically illegal. And although there may not be specific enforcement to reprimand me for acting like I didn’t see anything, I have a fucking conscience, and you are my student. So either you cooperate, or I will **_make_** you cooperate. Got it?”

Eren throws his head down, allowing his chocolate bangs to layer over his face. “One, zero, four, Wall Maria Drive…” He mumbles. I grab him by the arm, grab my briefcase and keys, and drag him out of the classroom, rush him through the halls, and guide him to the parking lot and into my grey Mazda 2015 CX5.  
“Sit.” I motion as I turn on the ignition. “Seatbelt.” I say as I readjust my mirrors. “Should I trust you to navigate me or…”

“I’ll do it.” He pouts and looks out the window.

“How long?” I asked, flipping on my turn signal to exit the parking lot.

“About 25 to 30 minutes…” he replied.

“Okay, but I actually meant how long have you been doing _that_?”

 

**Silence.**

I sigh. “My point is, it looks like you’re lucky enough to not have deep scars, so I’m assuming you’ve only fallen into this recently.”

“Who are you to--!”

“IF YOU WOULD LET ME FINISH.” _goddamn it,_ “I mean it would be easier for you to quit a habit while it is still developing, as opposed to after it is deeply instilled.”

“Take the next left.” He mumbled.

“I’m _honestly_ trying to help you here.” I side glare at him. “This sort of thing can unfortunately get out of hand pretty quickly.”

“Go straight on the highway, continue for 8 miles, then turn right on Rose Guard Blvd.”

_He is making it so difficult to not smack him right now._

A painfully slow 25 minutes later, we arrive at a nice, modern home with wide windows and an attached garage, a kempt front yard, and a complementary cheerful yellow painted home. “Wow, your house is actually pretty gorgeous…you even have a Koi pond. _Impressive.”_ I say as I get out of the car.

“Keeps my mom busy.” Eren mumbles, not unbuckling his seatbelt.

I rub my temples and speak through my open door, which I wish could swivel enough to smack him in the face without damaging the leather seats.  
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lovely parents?”

“My mom’s divorced.” Eren unbuckles his seatbelt and opens the door. “You drove me home safely and scared me with your hours long lectures.” He slammed the door and glared at me. “Lesson learned, now leave.”

Losing my patience, I rush over to him and slam my palm on the closed door, positioning my body to the side of him, and my arm on his other side. I lean into his face, my eyes glaring into his pupils, stabbing to try to get through his damn arrogance. “ _Look,_ you have no idea how lucky you are that I am even bothering to intervene and waste my precious time on a _peachy_ brat like you, trying to save your life.”

Eren flinched, but quickly reassured his prideful arrogance. “Well, I didn’t ask for you to try to save a life that I don’t even want to live!”

**_Fucking hell this little…_ **

I snatch him by the wrist and drag him to the front door and ring the doorbell twice. Unexpectedly, Eren’s hand tightened around mine, and he even shifted his body weight onto me.  
I eye him, perplexed.

 

**The front door swings open.**

 

“For God’s sake, did you forget the fucking key again you useless piece of—“  a woman with unkempt hair in a house robe starts yelling. Unlike Eren’s chocolate locks, hers are more like dirt.  
Although a beautiful, wholesome appearance on the outside, the inside of the house is quite dark and fractured…nothing feels whole about it.  
I’m a bit taken aback, and trying my hardest to not look at Eren, whose grip tightened on my hand.

“Eeh? What trouble did you get into? I raised you better than this!” She raises her hand as if to strike Eren, who flinched and moved into my shoulder.

“Sorry mom, I—“

I (fake) smile and block her arm with mine. “Ah, actually, I had dragged Eren into my class after to discuss some future study plans to receive the college credit for this course. He told me he couldn’t miss the bus, but this is fairly important to plan as early as possible. So I offered to drive him home and I wanted to safely ensure someone was home to see him safe.”

The woman was reeking of booze but it wasn’t even 5pm yet. I look at Eren, continuing to plaster my smile, but eyes concerned. He let go of me and kept his head low.

“Thank you professor Ackerman for driving me home” Still avoiding eye contact, he gave a slight formal bow and then moved toward his mother. “There is no more need for your presence here” his tone emphasized his desire for me to leave (and not return). “I will see you tomorrow.”

“Ah, sorry to bother you Mrs. Jaeger, but I just remembered one more thing to discuss right quick.” I grabbed Eren by the wrist and lightly tugged him toward me. “May I?” I smiled at the drunk.

“Huh? More time to waste! Eren you still have to study and clean the house and feed Fido, and cook! You’re not sleeping til you finish everything and don’t you dare complain!” She rambled on and walked back into the hallway, only half-shutting the door “because this is your fault and—“ her voice faded into the background.

I looked at Eren with sheer worry in my eyes. “Hey,”

“Don’t.” Eren hung his head low.

_Glass breaks._

“DAMN IT!” The woman yells from the inside.

“Eren, it’s not safe for you mentally or physically to be here.”

“Look, you don’t understand okay!” Eren chokes on suppressed sobs. “I have been dealing with this for a year already when my dad decided to just leave out of the blue. I’m used to it now and there are only a few more months of school, then I can get a good scholarship, and maybe, but hopefully not, take out some loans and I’ll be free on my own and everything will be just fine and…” he loses restraint and breaks into tears. I allow him to rest himself on me, and I hug him.

“We can get the authorities to help and—“

Eren pushes me away, terrified but furious.

“And what?! Take me away from my home and ruin my plans? They will do what they want with me since I’m still 17! I can deal with this and finish school and everything is going according to plan! Stop trying to ruin what I’ve worked so hard to assemble!”

He walks away.

“Friendly word of advice, traffic gets bad at 5, so the sooner to decide to leave and not linger, the better.” He pushes open the door and walks in. “ _for both of us.”_

 

**_Slam._ **


	4. Teacher, Instructing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Should we talk about it? We should. But Levi finds it difficult to confront Eren about last night while he has to be professional as a teacher. Tactfully, Levi has to stealthfully use the classroom and his lecture to direct messages to Eren letting him know that he should have more faith in himself and that it's okay to rely on others for help.
> 
> Oh, well and of course Connie and Jean get roasted hot and sweetly like a s'more..so stay tuned!

 “Alright, I hope you all prepared yourselves well for the Chapter 3 assessment.” I announce as I pass the 10-question quizzes, as usual. “Please note that in college, you will be given an assignment, and not only is it entirely up to you whether you decide to do it..” I eye Connie, “ _or not..”_ I slam the paper on his desk, with a slight smirk. He flinches. “But even when you complete the task, if you don’t do it _well_ , then you can still expect less than satisfactory results.” This time I eye Jean.

“ _Huuummphhh”_ Jean elicits his usual horse-call.

“Yeah, well, I know today’s date so at least one outta ten, here I come!” Connie cheers. He picks up his pencil with this big psycho smile, which completely drops as soon as he reads the quiz. “Wait, is the date not worth a point this time..?” He asks somberly.

I smirk. “Firstly, it was a freebie on the first assessment. Secondly, you said it was _dumb._ And thirdly, always expect the unexpected.” I cross my arms proudly. “You have fifteen minutes, begin.”   
Connie slumps limp on his desk and sobs. “Your quiz doesn’t have flood insurance.” I call out.

 

I observe everyone to assess how they may have prepared themselves. Armin looks serious, but focused. Mikasa….erm, _the same._ Jean…worried. Connie…oh my, this is gold; I wish _Funniest Home Videos_ or _Vine_ were still a thing so I could record his pitiful expression.   
Then, my gaze fell upon Eren. He seemed focused, but he had terrible eye bags, and maybe slightly red blotches from crying. I walked around the class, looking over everyone’s shoulders, then I stopped when I reached Eren. Hearing my footsteps settle behind him, I could see him tense, but he kept focusing on the assessment. He was stuck on number six, circling and erasing between choices, unsure of himself. I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave a squeeze. Leaning in, I whispered “Always keep faith in yourself.” The tips of his ears turned pink _._  
Then I continued my sauntering.

I stopped behind Connie and chuckled. He was doing better than before, so it means he really does want to improve, but I know that if I tease him like this, he will feel more insecure. As much as my sadism enjoys this, I now understand that he is driven by the need to prove himself; a strong quality, but it just needs to be in the right direction, therefore I’ll do my best to steer him that way…and have a _little fun_ along the way.

“Tch! Hey! This is cheating, just because you’re a teacher, doesn’t mean you can just look at my answers!” He spurts as he leans over his paper, covering his answers.

I stare at him with utter disbelief. “Connie. I am grading your fucki—“ I clear my throat. “freaking paper…”

Connie flusters a beet red. “W-well, wait your turn!! I still have like 10 minutes and you’re distracting me!!”

I rub the side of my face, trying to relieve this pent up tension. Okay I know I said I want to help him and all but sometimes he is too much and I want to slap the shit out of him.  “Actually seven. Either get help in math or learn to read an analog clock.”

I walk back to my desk and load the powerpoint on my laptop and turn on the projector. “Okay everyone, please kindly finish _on time_ this time, and if you’ve paced yourself well and are done _as you should be,_ pass your papers up to the front of your row.

Christa passes her paper forward, and Ymir, staring wide-eyed at her, quickly rushes to finish answering her quiz to pass up her paper at the same time. Connie continues sniffling and scrambling. Jean smirks as he passes up his paper and crosses his arms. Hanji giggles (sorta maniacally..) as she passes her paper up front; that child is doing me a concern.   
Armin passes his paper forward and gives an unsure smile and shrug to Mikasa, who…as usual has no expression as she passes hers forward as well. Then, I look at Eren. He is still focusing, wagging his pencil furiously from side to side in between his middle and fore-fingers. I don’t understand if he is unsure in himself, or if he didn’t find the time to study well because of last night. He looks up, and our eyes meet for a split second before he looks back down, circles some things, and passes his paper forward while still looking away.

I walk to each leading desk and collect the papers. I shuffle them into a neat pile on my desk, then begin lecturing about our next topic.  
“Alright class. In order to save wasted time of you all sobbing over your attempt at self-studying for a quiz…today we will be going over actual geography. The AP exam likes to test your knowledge on the shape of kinds of countries. We have _protruding_ , which are some large masses, but in the end have some thinner ‘tail’ so to say at the end of it, such as Thailand. _Elongated,_ which, as those of you who can use 3rd grade grammar to figure out”, I smirk at Connie, who is amazingly still silently sobbing to himself…”is a long or stretched out landmass, such as Vietnam or Chile. _Fragmented,_ which is just as it sounds, where the country has landmasses that are of the state but not tangibly connected, such as the Philippines. _Perforated,_ where the country is inside of another major country, such as Lesotho inside of South Africa. And lastly. _Compact_ states. Compact states are generally favorable for their own safety.” I find my eyes transitioning toward Eren. “They keep to themselves and seem protected on the outside, but in reality they are surrounded by other countries, other viable opponents on the outside that can just secretly attack and harm them at any moment..” Eren’s eyes widen as I glance at him, then again, he does that stupid little thing again where he uninterestedly gazes out the window. But I know he’s paying attention, pondering over what I was saying. “An example is Poland.”

“So,” Connie begins to ask, shyly. “Is Japan like, an elongated state?”  
“Hmm, so you decide to pay attention, eh?” I smile. “Sure, you could say that.”   
“YES. GONNA ACE THIS NEXT QUIZ.” Connie exclaims, then dabs.  
“I mean, you’d get it wrong because Japan is actually Fragmented because the landmasses are not connected, but I won’t blame your geography teacher for your poor listening and learning skills.” My smile turns into a condescending smirk. Connie’s face drains from a cheery peach-blushed-pink to zombie grey. Most of the class supports Connie by laughing at him.

“If Levi was a state, it’d be Sa-va-ge.” Snickers Hanji.  
“It wouldn’t be elongated because it’d be quite short. HON HON HON” laughs Jean.

My eyebrow twitches. “Yeah, well you’ll be a compact state after I beat you and your GPA into a pulp. Have fun living as a clown in the circus, you brat. You’d fit right in. The only thing funny about you is your appearance and your clumsiness.” I cross my arms, grinding my teeth.

 _“OOOHHHHHHH”  
“SHIIIEEEETTT_ ”

The class echoes.

My eyes find themselves peering back toward Eren, and I swear, I can see a bit of a smile hiding behind his side glance out toward the window. Subconsciously, I find a smile creeping itself onto the curves of my lips as well.

“Alright you goons. Please continue class by reading and annotating chapter 3 while I grade your quizzes.” I turn off the projector. “It may take a while for me to get through them amidst my grimaces at your first attempt of studying for yourselves.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! First off, BIG BIG BIIIGG thanks to everyone for commenting/supporting this story. It just started out as a random idea but I am so glad you all enjoy it!
> 
> Any suggestions or opinions are always welcome.
> 
> This chapter took a long time to update because I am having trouble continuing my thoughts. Since this was a random idea, I've forgotten about exactly how I wanted to portray the continuation of Eren's situation...so, I guess this is writer's block, huh?


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